Storage capacity on computing devices has increased tremendously over a relatively short period of time, thereby enabling users and businesses to create and store a substantial amount of data. For example, hard drive space on today's consumer computers is in the order of hundreds of gigabytes. Servers and other higher-level devices can be associated with a significantly greater amount of storage space. This growth in storage capacity is not solely limited to personal computers and servers, but rather has reached into the portable device space, such as portable telephones, personal digital assistants, portable media players, and other suitable hand-held devices.
The massive amount of storage space available to average consumers has enabled them to retain thousands if not millions of files. For example, photographs can be taken through use of a digital camera and then transferred and retained on a computing device. Thus, a computing device can effectively be utilized as a photograph album. In a similar vein, music files can be ripped from a media such as a compact disk and placed upon the computing device, thereby enabling the computing device to act as a juke box. Word processing documents can be created and retained, wherein such documents can relate to one's bills, reports, school papers, employment, investment portfolio, etc. Spread sheet files, slide presentations, and other item types relating to any topic desired by the user can also be created and/or retained in a hard disk or memory of a computing device. Given the significant number of data files that may exist on a computing device, wherein such files can be created at different times and relate to different topics, it can be discerned that organization and/or indexing of such files can be extremely problematic.
To undertake data file organization, conventionally folders and sub-folders are created, wherein names and location within a hierarchy of the folders is determined according to topic and content that is to be retained therein. This can be done manually and/or automatically; for instance, a user can manually create a folder, name the folder, and place the folder in a desired location. Thereafter, the user can move data/files to such folder and/or cause newly created data/files to be saved in the folder. Folders can also be created automatically through one or more programs. For example, digital cameras typically store files in folders that are named by date—thus, digital photographs can be stored in a folder that recites a date that photographs therein were taken. This approach works well for a small number of files created over a relatively short time frame, as users can remember locations of folders and contents that were stored therein. When number of files and folders increases and time passes, however, users have difficulty remembering where items that they wish to retrieve are located, what they were named, etc. A search for file content or name can then be employed, but often this search is deficient in locating desired data, as a user may not remember a name of a file, when such file was created, and other parameters that can be searched. To cause even further difficulty, a file may be related to a particular topic, but a search function cannot be employed due to lack of content or lack of particular wording.
A similar problem exists with respect to emails, as users can retain hundreds if not thousands of emails. Currently, organizing such emails requires a significant amount of labeling by a user. For instance, a user can categorize emails from a particular sender as “junk” email, thus causing each email delivered from such sender to be provided to a certain folder. Similarly, users can manually create folders and drag emails into such folders to organize emails. Furthermore, an email application can be trained to automatically direct emails to a particular older. However, emails that may belong to more than one folder that are assigned to a single folder can leave other folders incomplete. Additionally, items moved outside of an inbox are typically ignored.